1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging lens and an imaging apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to an imaging lens appropriate for use in an in-vehicle camera, a camera for a mobile terminal, a surveillance camera, or the like using an imaging device, such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor). Further, the present invention relates to an imaging apparatus including the imaging lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the size of an imaging device, such as a CCD and a CMOS, became very small, and the resolution of the imaging device became very high. Consequently, the size of the body of imaging equipment including such an imaging device was reduced. Therefore, reduction in the size and the weight of an imaging lens mounted on the imaging equipment is also needed in addition to excellent optical performance. Meanwhile, lenses mounted on the in-vehicle camera, the surveillance camera and the like need to have excellent weather-resistance characteristics. Further, the lenses need to have wide angles of view, and to be structurable in a small size and at a low cost, and to have excellent performance.
As conventional imaging lenses having relatively small numbers of lenses in the aforementioned fields, imaging lenses disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6 (1994)-34879 (Patent Document 1), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-337268 (Patent Document 2), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-181596 (Patent Document 3), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2009-276679 (Patent Document 4), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-231190 (Patent Document 5), and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-102500 (Patent Document 6) are known. Patent Documents 1 through 6 disclose three-lens imaging lenses.